Montana Hiking: Day 1

I flew into Bozeman, Montana on Friday afternoon. Sheets of falling rain and sleet greeted me.

Bozeman is a small but rapidly growing city in the Rocky Mountains. As I drove upwards in elevation, the snow stuck more to the roads and terrain. Snow-capped mountains loomed in each direction.

I traveled with my two brothers and we rented a house near the Bridger Mountain Range. The purpose of our trip was simply to escape the city and enjoy some challenging mountain hikes. It’s common, I guess, for a city dweller to yearn for vacations that are “near nature.”

To be “near nature” is a sort of odd yearning because everything is nature. A city is nature. Wildlife creeps into the cities just as wildlife finds its way into everything. There are rats in the sewers, squirrels in the yards, trees in the parks, and insects in the alleyways. Maybe it is more appropriate to just say one wants to be “away from man-made cities.” I don’t particularly like cities, aside from their conveniences.

Saturday morning the snow continued to pile on and we attempted a hike along Drinking Horse Mountain Trail. The hike up this mountain was already vertiginous and was all the more brutal due to the icy conditions. There was a breathtaking beauty though, even amongst the frozen tundra.

I was constantly slipping, as even my hiking-specific boots were not equipped for the weather. However, the view from the top of the mountain was breathtaking.

After this hike, some delicious breakfast burritos, and a little recovery, we embarked for the “M Trail,” a slightly more difficult hike along a neighboring mountain. The snowfall stopped by our arrival at the trail, but the mountains remains snow-capped. Some mountain areas had upwards of twelve inches of snow on the ground to trudge through. I believe the snow and ice doubled our time to completion.

On the way down the M Trail we took a wrong turn. In fact, we took several wrong turns and ended up crossing into an intersecting trail. It’s difficult to say where exactly our hike went wrong because the snow hid a lot of trail demarcations.

We accidentally took a much more difficult climb down this mountain (and it was a climb by that point, not a hike). I often skidded and slid, and mostly just hoped I wouldn’t re-injure my right foot. Luckily, I made it.

The extremely high altitude taxed my lungs and the added challenge of walking over snow and ice exhausted my body. I knew quickly that I’d wake up with sore glutes.

So, after these two hikes and some excellent barbecue, I relaxed with my brothers at our house’s outdoor hot tub, which also provided an incredible view of the mountains. I could see several prairie dogs poke out of holes in the ground all through the valley.

The next day would involve a drive to Yellowstone National Park.